I have an extreme lack of patience with television talk shows of the "Springer" variety, where submoronic guests shout inane catch phrases at each other in a mockery of communication.  When I first began seeing the woman who is now my wife she would watch these shows and laugh, while my blood pressure climbed.  She told me she had used the shows as a way to learn English, or at least certain dialects of English, after arriving in America.  Since the same kinds of comments were repeated again and again on the shows, it was easy for her to remember phrases and words. Of course, she realized that the repetition did not grant validity to what was being said, just made things a bit easier.

Over the years, she has become less tolerant of these shows herself, or perhaps got tired of me complaining ceaselessly while they were on. Now, when she lingers on one a bit too long, she will make an excuse like 'these shows let me know that at least I'm not as messed up as some people.'  I smugly reply that if you use a low enough standard, you can always feel like things in your own life are okay, the whole while feeling a bit indignant to be part of the life that is so messed up she needs to use such shows to justify it.

I'm not saying I hold myself to ultra-high standards all the time.  I don't, for example, compare myself to Jesus or Gandhi when I wonder if I'm acting in a morally appropriate manner, although I'd do better to think on them more often.  I don't think about Bill Gates or Rupert Murdoch when I measure my material success, although I'd do better to think on them less.  I also have to admit to boosting my own sense of self by pointing out just how bad certain other people suck.  Still, I realize that such negative thinking ultimately goes nowhere.  We all accept certain shortcomings in ourselves, and allow for failings in others.  It's only when we start to believe the worst of those behaviors are somehow an acceptable standard that things get ugly.

The "low enough standard" concept applies far too well to racism, and how it comes across in "The Media."  When watching footage of KKK members marching in a parade, or hearing of Aryan Nation members hanging a black man on the TV news, or seeing a movie like "Mississippi Burning" it is easy to feel a sense of moral outrage.  'I can't believe people think and act like that!!'  As much as I wish I couldn't, I can.  And I also see that it lets a lot of the rest of us off the hook for our lesser racist attitudes and actions.  It's easy to condemn the most blatant forms of racism, and to use those as a measure of how progressive the rest of us are.  But that's a false measure.

Just because I don't host a public access show centered around the superiority of the white race doesn't mean it's okay for racial epithets to spring to mind whenever the guy who cuts me off on the freeway isn't white.  I don't have to let fly with the word; the thought enough is poison.  It's the seed of something lacking in any understanding of each other and ourselves.  It's the disease that latches on to the most obvious differences between us, and exploits the thoughts that let us be callous or fearful toward one another for whatever reason. 

In a way, seeing the KKK or violent racism on the TV news drags us all down.  The KKK gets their way, achieves some small victory, by indirectly leading us to the conclusion that lesser racism is okay racism.  And far too many of us buy into that agenda.  Plus, the KKK and other white supremacist groups want all the attention they can get: it gets their message out and helps recruit other like-minded idiots.  I'd like to assume that those responsible for television news programs are using coverage of racist incidents to help expose and stamp out the worst racist attitudes that lead to violence and murder.  However, in my cynical shell, I cannot help but see such stories as ratings-grabbers and perhaps even a sinister conspiracy to allow the rest of us to feel good about ourselves for at least not killing anybody.

When I'm relying on racism as a subject matter for viewing, I'd rather see something like "Do the Right Thing" or "American History X" than "Mississippi Burning."  I'd rather watch something that presents race issues as complicated things that aren't easy to nail down, where misdirected anger often begets misdirected anger, rather than misdirected anger achieving a solution.  I'd rather watch something where people who screw up may or may not be redeemed, possibly, but not always, depending on whether or not they come to understand anything. But most of all, I want to watch something that provokes thought, rather than something that leaves the impression that everything is okay or that there is an open and shut case. 

I don't want to watch films that carry out the falsehoods and historical inaccuracies of white guys riding in and saving the poor, black folk, lest I start to think that such a thing happened, or happens, or start thinking that slapping around the right (or wrong) people is going to make the rest of us better, and make racism go away. Action-adventure and difficult issues should not be mistaken for one another, just as 'Springer' should not be mistaken for a serious discussion of anything . . .ever.

Copyright © 2000 Jon Schildbach All Rights Reserved

Jon Schildbach is a Seattle based writer. He's a regular columnist on religion and culture for *spark-online.

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